Ken Borland

Kwagga Smith has unparalleled strength for a man of just 80kg who is 1.80 metres tall, and his tremendous exertions led a muscular display from the Lions pack as they sealed an exciting 29-28 win in the final quarter of their SuperRugby match against the Waratahs at Ellis Park on Saturday.

Smith made a couple of crucial turnovers in the second half, including the one that led to the Lions claiming the lead for the first time in the match, and he punched weigh above his weight in the collisions. Probably the moment that will be most remembered, however, came when replacement centre Adam Ashley-Cooper engulfed his upper body in a tackle but Smith lifted his 98kg opponent off his feet with seemingly just the power of his neck muscles! (see video here)

In this year of superhero-themed SuperRugby, it was an earth-shattering moment and the Waratahs must have been shaken. Shortly thereafter they conceded the penalty, kicked from in front of the poles by replacement flyhalf Shaun Reynolds, that snatched the victory for the Lions.

Having a player like Kwagga Smith performing heroics alongside you can only be inspirational and front-rankers Johannes Jonker, Dylan Smith and Malcolm Marx, and replacement flank Marnus Schoeman all stepped up in that final quarter and flexed their not inconsiderable muscle as well. Some massive scrums and sheer physicality in the collisions won the day.

The Waratahs will certainly be of the view that they gave away a much-needed victory, having led 28-26 with 12 minutes remaining. But to be fair, all three of the visitors’ tries in the first half were rather gifted to them by poor exits by the Lions, who kept putting in silly little chip-kicks from their own 22 and were duly punished.

The first try came as early as the fourth-minute, with Lions coach Swys de Bruin admitting afterwards he had been worried by the start his team made after a torrid tour and a bye week. The vision of fullback Kurtley Beale allowed him to launch a counter-attack into Lions’ territory, but the home side managed to steal the Waratahs’ lineout throw.

Only to give the ball straight back as wing Alex Newsome claimed the chip, Beale and centre Karmichael Hunt put in good runs, before flyhalf Bernard Foley found scrumhalf Nick Phipps dashing up to score the try.

The response of the Lions, seven minutes later, was a repeat of the astounding intercept try scored against the Waratahs by Bulls eighthman Duane Vermeulen last weekend. Hooker Marx intercepted Phipps’s pass off a lineout around halfway and did enough to force a penalty. The Lions kicked to touch, set the maul and then rumbled forward through a couple of pick-and-goes, before flyhalf Elton Jantjies found Aphiwe Dyantyi racing through on an inside-ball, the wing stretching over to score.

Marx may not quite have had the pace to complete the try, but his more obvious strengths came to the fore in the crucial final stages, when he was a dominating figure.

The charity of the Lions continued from the restart though, the ding-dong battle repeating as another silly chip-kick out of their 22 was snapped up by the Waratahs. The Lions defence was then all over the place as flank Michael Hooper weaved his way through for their second try.

The Lions’ response took five minutes this time as the prominent figure of lock Stephan Lewies went over from close range after the rolling maul had been well-defended, levelling the scores at 14-14 after the first quarter.

The to-and-fro pattern of scoring continued as another poor exit by Jantjies led to Rob Simmons, the Waratahs lock, bursting through the yawning gap in the defensive line and scoring.

But the Lions had the final say of the first half as the outstanding inside centre Harold Vorster shaped to pass but then went on a fabulous, arcing run, beating two pairs of tacklers and then putting the grubber through. That man Kwagga Smith showed his pace to get on the end of it and dot down, leaving the Lions two points adrift (19-21) at the break.

The Lions began the second half in spectacular fashion with a try that should make the global highlights of rugby played this weekend, Swys de Bruin later describing it as “one of outstanding beauty that lifted our spirits”.

It started with the Smith turnover in his own 22 and another great run by Vorster started the counter-attack. Eighthman Warren Whiteley then linked up with Lewies, who got the offload away to Marx (although there was a hint of it going forward), and the hooker freed wing Courtnall Skosan to go speeding over for the try and the lead for the first time.

The Waratahs regained the lead in the 57th minute, a flamboyant long pass from Hunt to Rona sending the wing flying down the line. He was stopped just short of the line, but replacement prop Tom Robertson cashed in on quickly recycled ball and crashed over for the try, Foley converting for a 28-26 lead.

To the Waratahs’ credit, they did not suddenly become all economical in their approach, and they kept probing as they rapidly moved the ball through the hands.

But this was a game ultimately won by muscle, with the Lions’ forwards gaining the momentum, this led to penalties that allowed the home side to dictate territory.

With this win, the Lions have climbed into the playoff places in eighth spot, but they are just three points off the conference-leading Sharks and fifth place overall.

The Bulls did well to win so convincingly in Durban last weekend, their display was really something special, especially after the Sharks had put in good performances in New Zealand.

I really thought that the Sharks would put up more of a fight though, but it seemed like they just weren’t there. The Bulls exposed a few things in their side tactically, which wasn’t great. Warrick Gelant scored his three tries from kicks through so you have to ask ‘where was the sweeper?’, ‘where were the wings?’ and ‘where was Curwin Bosch?’

For Gelant’s first try, Bosch sprinted all the way from the left-hand side of the field to the right, but he never looked at the ball! He never clocked on to what Handre Pollard was doing. It was a middle ruck and Gelant was on the inside of the flyhalf, but the Sharks still had plenty of time to get to the kick. The Sharks were just not good enough in terms of covering kicks.

The Bulls also scored two tries from mauls, and that’s against a very strong, experienced pack of forwards including Springbok back-rowers. You would have expected them to stop the drive much better than they did and there are obviously issues with the Sharks pack. You know that if you are five metres from your line, the Bulls will maul, that is very predictable.

Gelant really took his opportunity on the day and he is an exciting talent. He’s been in the Bulls system since 2014, after being spotted by Heyneke Meyer at Outeniqua High School in George.

He has really great feet and it is very rare for a fullback to be able to kick with both feet as easily as he can. He has certainly nudged the Springbok selectors in the right direction and his tactical kicking was also good.

But it was Pollard who really directed the game and you have to credit him for seeing the space and executing so well. He has been a Springbok for four years, so even though he is just 24 he is experienced and one can see that he is definitely better in terms of his tactical appreciation of where the space is and how to find it. He was able to put the ball behind the Sharks back three quite easily.

Since Adriaan Strauss has moved back to starting hooker, the Bulls have changed their lineout defence and their maul and their forwards just look much better. They even earned some scrum penalties against the Sharks, so it was a special performance by the pack.

There is now a mountain of pressure on Sharks coach Robert du Preez and their match against the Stormers this weekend in Durban is make-or-break for both teams, who have similar records. The Sharks have 14 points but have only won two of their eight games, with one draw, while the Stormers have won three out of eight matches but have 13 points.

They can still get up to the Lions on 25 points, but they need a good run of wins at home now. The Bulls will probably target away wins against the Sunwolves and Jaguares, which will be so important for them.

The key is how the Lions do on tour – and the three other South African challengers have all toured – and if their four away games don’t go well then it will really bring them back to the pack and make the conference exciting.

I foresee the Bulls getting a good win over the Rebels at Loftus Versfeld.

The Rebels have fallen away a bit with their loss to the Jaguares last weekend and a big defeat at the hands of the Hurricanes before that, so they are not quite where they were a few weeks ago.

They do have one real quality player though in Amanaki Mafi, who is also the Japan eighthman. He is the leading ball-carrier in both Japan and SuperRugby and is one heck of a player, named the Rebels Player of the Year last season. He’s exciting, very explosive and just loves playing rugby. He doesn’t seem to suffer from fatigue and plays 15 Top League games in Japan and then the whole of SuperRugby. I think Loftus will really enjoy him.

It’s been strange to hear the Stormers camp talk about last weekend’s result making the Sharks angry because they will be up against the same team. You would expect them to come out firing at home after a loss like that, but they could also be a little bit devoid of confidence.

The Stormers, meanwhile, have to improve their away record and to do that they have to improve their defence, which has been conceding too many tries – 37, second worst behind the Sunwolves’ 40, including eight against the Lions and five against the Bulls in their last two games.

It’s been interesting to see the differentiation of roles in the Stormers set-up with two defence coaches: Paul Treu doing first-phase attack and defence and Paul Feeney doing everything after that, in other words broken play. It’s definitely a first for me and the proof of how effective it is will be how they finish the season. I do wonder who’s where during training sessions though because normally the defence coach is always behind the defensive line. I’d love to see a video of the Stormers’ training because I reckon the two Pauls are racking up plenty of miles on their GPSs running backwards and forwards!

It’s been really good to see a South African coach do well overseas and Johann van Graan’s achievement in steering Munster into the European Champions Cup semi-final against Racing 92 in Bordeaux on Sunday is fantastic. Since taking over from Rassie Erasmus in November he has had a chance to put his own stamp on the team and it is exciting to see a young (38!) South African coach doing so well overseas, it is a real feather in Johann’s cap.

Munster have certainly put on more attacking displays recently and they have scored quite a lot of tries in the Pro14, with JP Ferreira also doing well as defence coach – another young South African coach doing well.

John McFarland is the assistant coach of the Kubota Spears in Japan and was the Springbok defence coach from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup, where they conceded the least line-breaks in the tournament and an average of just one try per game. Before that, McFarland won three SuperRugby titles (2007, 09, 10) with the Bulls and five Currie Cup crowns with the Blue Bulls. In all, he won 28 trophies during his 12 years at Loftus Versfeld.

Handling errors and poor defence were the chief concerns of Bulls coach Nollis Marais following their dismal display in Albany which saw them being belted 38-14 by the Blues at the weekend.

Despite having their fair share of possession and shading the territory battle, the Bulls were outscored by six tries to two and fell apart badly in the second half after going into the break level at 7-7.

“We were very competitive in the first half but we didn’t take our chances in the second half. We made too many errors with our handling and we couldn’t convert from the lineout. We gave them too many opportunities and obviously the defence is definitely a concern.

“We conceded too many points in the second half and we will have to look at that, re-visit our defence,” Marais said.

The Bulls allowed 13 linebreaks and missed 24 tackles against the Blues, and have now conceded 17 tries in four matches.

The Blues had won just one of their four matches prior to their meeting with the Bulls, who now face far tougher opposition in the form of the unbeaten Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday.

“There will definitely be one or two changes to the team, but we’re not going to change structurally, we have to make sure everything is in place for next Saturday,” the coach said.

The scrums were perhaps the only area where the Bulls did themselves justice.

“It was a great performance in the scrums, Trevor Nyakane did really well at tighthead, and we were dominant there, so that was a very good positive,” Marais said.

“But we didn’t take our chances in the second half, we wasted too many opportunities. A couple of times we were in their 22 but we didn’t convert that into points either.”

A single miss in an otherwise top-class kicking display by Pat Lambie cost the Sharks victory as they went down 26-28 to the Reds in their opening SuperRugby match in Brisbane on Friday.

Lambie missed a penalty three minutes from full-time that would have snatched a fortuitous victory, given that a Reds team that played with 14 men for 20 minutes outscored them by four tries to two.

With Lambie earlier kicking six-from-six, the Sharks enjoyed a 26-18 lead with 16 minutes remaining, but a poor finish to the game saw them concede two tries.

The Sharks made a great start with a try in the second minute when the Reds were throwing passes around and flyhalf Quade Cooper dropped the ball, outside centre Lukhanyo Am pounced and a quick interchange with wing Kobus van Wyk then put flank Jean-Luc du Preez away to storm over the tryline.

Lambie’s conversion made it 7-0, but the Sharks were unable to threaten the Reds’ tryline again in the first half, largely because they had to make do with a tiny proportion of possession, their failure to hang on to the ball for long periods meaning they had to do most of the defending.

Cooper and Lambie traded two penalties each to make the score 13-6 at the half-hour, but Van Wyk then turned village idiot and tried to take a quick lineout inside his own 22, an isolated Curwin Bosch conceding a scrum. The Reds forwards drove strongly and eighthman Scott Higginbotham dotted down through the pile of bodies for the home side’s opening try, Cooper’s conversion levelling the scores at 13-13.

Lambie snuck a penalty in the last-minute of the first half, thanks to lock Ruan Botha twice putting great pressure on Reds scrumhalf Nick Frisby, for the Sharks to lead 16-13 at the break, and the visitors showed hitherto unseen control in the opening exchanges of the second half, dominating territory and hanging on to the ball much better.

Lambie succeeded with a 43^rd-minute penalty to stretch the lead to 19-13, but Queensland centre Samu Kerevi struck back with the first of his two tries six minutes later.

Running with great power and awareness, he burst through a gap between scrumhalf Cobus Reinach and Am, to score after the Reds chose a scrum under the shadow of the poles instead of a kick at goal. Cooper failed with an easy conversion attempt, which allowed the Sharks to hang on to a slender one-point lead.

With referee Nick Briant suddenly remembering that there is no tolerance for neck-tackles this season, Reds lock Kane Douglas was yellow-carded for pulling at Beast Mtawarira’s neck in the 57^th minute.

With a lot of the Reds muscle gone, the Sharks understandably went for rolling mauls when awarded penalties, but there was no accuracy in their first couple of attempts, but eventually eighthman Tera Mtembu rumbled over in the 61^st minute after the Queenslanders disintegrated.

Lambie converted for a 26-18 lead, but they were to score no further points as they seemed to lack a clear plan in the final quarter.

Kerevi is a particular threat in this Reds side and he muscled over from close range again in the 64^th minute, but the killer blow was landed by his midfield partner Duncan Paia’aua, who ran an excellent line back inside, cutting straight through before replacement scrumhalf James Tuttle finished strongly.

The result was a sharp reminder to the Sharks of the accuracy that is required to win overseas – they simply made too many errors in discipline and decision-making, although a losing bonus point was some reward for the competitiveness they showed.

Mtawarira was full of energy in the front row, Du Preez was a force with ball-in-hand and Am was exciting at times in the backline, but the overall Sharks performance was not good enough to earn victory.

Scorers

Reds – Tries: Scott Higginbotham, Samu Kerevi (2), James Tuttle. Conversion: Quade Cooper. Penalties: Cooper (2).

Sharks – Tries: Jean-Luc du Preez, Tera Mtembu. Conversions: Pat Lambie (2). Penalties: Lambie (4).

http://citizen.co.za/sport/sport-rugby/1438777/clumsy-sharks-fluff-their-lines-at-vital-moments/